Robotic floor cleaning devices are being used with increasing frequency to maintain clean floors in residential and commercial settings.
One problem in designing robotic floor cleaning devices is selecting a wheel size for the device. Larger wheels may aid a device in driving over obstacles and may allow the device more autonomy and mobility. However, smaller wheels may be better for navigating through environments with lots of obstacles near each other. Additionally, larger wheels may cause the chassis of a robotic floor cleaning device to further from the work surface, which may affect the cleaning efficacy of the device. A need exists for a robotic floor cleaning device that can expand wheels for driving over obstacles when necessary, and contract them when the larger wheel size is not needed.